2006-03-15 04:00:00 PDT Orange County -- Ken Griffey Jr. has a bond with Barry Bonds. Not only are they members of the 500-homers club, but they're sons of big-league stars whose careers they've surpassed.

But though Bonds is a poster child for baseball's steroid scandal, Griffey remained clear of steroid suspicions while posting some astounding numbers, including 56 home runs in consecutive years in the late '90s, smack in the middle of the Steroid era.

"They can't look at mine. They can't look at mine," Griffey said Tuesday, suggesting his stats shouldn't be tainted despite the era in which he has played. "You all know good and damn well that what you see is what you get. You can look at other people and speculate all you want. But you guys know from looking at me that I didn't touch a thing."

Griffey's relationship with Bonds, dating to their childhood, and a particular gathering at Griffey's Orlando home are subjects of another book on Bonds. "Love Me, Hate Me: Barry Bonds and the Making of an Antihero," written by Jeff Pearlman and published by Harper Collins, is scheduled to be in stores May 9.

The excerpt was released Tuesday, one week after another book was excerpted in Sports Illustrated, detailing Bonds' steroid experiences beginning in 1998. "Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports," written by The Chronicle's Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is scheduled for release March 23.

According to the "Love Me, Hate Me" excerpt, which was posted on ESPN's Web site and will run in the network's magazine, Bonds told Griffey after the 1998 season that he was preparing to use steroids -- "some hard-core stuff" -- after he saw what they did for Mark McGwire, who set the single-season homers record that year.

According to the excerpt, Bonds is quoted as saying to Griffey, "You know what, I had a helluva season last year, and nobody gave a crap. Nobody. As much as I've complained about McGwire and (Jose) Canseco and all of the bull with steroids, I'm tired of fighting it. I turn 35 this year. I've got three or four good seasons left, and I wanna get paid. I'm just gonna start using some hard-core stuff, and hopefully it won't hurt my body. Then I'll get out of the game and be done with it."

Bonds, who went 3-for-3 with a home run and sacrifice bunt in the Giants' Tuesday exhibition at Scottsdale, Ariz., refused to address the Pearlman book.

"Why do we have to go over this every time?" he said. "Can we just talk baseball, please? Please? Please? Can we just talk baseball? Can we?"

Griffey admitted he hosted Bonds several times at his home, but said he doesn't remember the dinner conversation described in the excerpt.

"The conversation we supposedly had, I don't ever remember happening," Griffey said at CalState Fullerton, where Team USA held a workout between games in the World Baseball Classic. "I just don't remember us ever talking about the use of any performance-enhancing drugs.

"I mean, the only thing Barry and I really talked about was me coming out to San Francisco and working out with him. And I told him for six weeks, I can't leave my family. Just like me asking him to come down to Florida for six weeks. It's tough when you have families. ... He said, 'You just need to get out here. Jerry Rice is out here.' As for the other thing, that conversation didn't happen."

Griffey was asked if he believes Bonds is natural.

"Does it really matter what I think?" he said before pausing. "Yeah, yeah."

According to the excerpt, Bonds told teammates he used androstenedione, which McGwire admitted to using in '98, and little-used infielder Jay Canizaro estimated as many as 13 players on the '99 Giants were steroid users and that he was sure Bonds was a user because of the signs, including his body size and acne on his back. Canizaro said Bonds' trainer, Greg Anderson, gave him details about Bonds' steroid intake.

"The Giants that year were really out of control," Canizaro is quoted as saying.

On the day the latest Bonds steroid report appeared, Giants owner Peter Magowan wouldn't comment on whether the organization looked the other way in the face of evidence that Bonds was doing steroids, as was stated in "Game of Shadows." Nor did Magowan comment on whether he feared Bonds would be suspended.

"I can't comment on any of this," Magowan said. "It's a position we've taken for over two years now, and the commissioner has his investigation going now, a review, and we said we're going to cooperate on that any way we can. But other than that, I can't really comment.

"He's the commissioner of baseball. He's got broad powers. He's promised he's going to do a careful, thorough review of everything. We told him we'd cooperate in any way we can, and that's all I can say."

At the same time, the Giants made it clear they'd celebrate Bonds matching Babe Ruth -- and passing him -- on the all-time homers list. He's six shy of Ruth's 714.

"If he gets 714 and 715, it's certainly not going to go unnoticed or uncommemorated," executive vice president Larry Baer said. "He's our player, and it would be a tremendous achievement. We don't know exactly what we're going to do, but there won't be silence."